Graduate Take Home Exam

Type your answers and conform to word limits. Return the completed exam to Guy or Dave by Friday, March 13th at 1 PM. Please use an alias name for identifying your exam. The exam is open book and open notes.

1. What are the missions of the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management? Briefly describe the implications of these missions for vegetation management on lands administered by these organizations. Address the ability of vegetation managers to contribute to the mission. Can these contributions be assessed objectively within the framework of the mission? [10 points; 400 words or fewer]

2. Describe the conflict between habitat types (or range sites, which are conceptually identical) and modern successional theory. Develop a means to resolve this conflict at a level of resolution appropriate to management of vegetation. [20 points; 300 words or fewer]

3. What ecological function(s) and modern management objective(s) are addressed by the use of shrub species in revegetation of drastically disturbed rangeland sites? What revegetation objectives might lead you to use Isocoma tenuisecta (burroweed - Syn. Haplopappus tenuisectus) in a revegetation plan for heavily disturbed semi-desert grassland in SE Arizona? Describe specifically how you would use this species. [20 points; 500 words or fewer]

1. What is the "command-and-control" pathology, as described by Holling and Meffe?

2. List a goal of science that conflicts with at least one general characteristic of management. Describe the conflict.

3. The half-life of 14C is _________ years.
   1. 570
   2. 1,300
   3. 5,000
   4. 5,700
   5. 57,000

4. The development of accelerator mass spectrometry technology reduced the size of sample required for accurate radiocarbon dating by a factor of __________.
   1. 2
   2. 10
   3. 100
   4. 500
   5. 1,000

5. Wildlife populations are being monitored along Rincon Creek as part of the mitigation plan for the Rocking K Ranch. List 2 other attributes associated with natural resource management that are also being monitored at this site.

6. The developer of the Rocking K Ranch made 4 primary concessions in exchange for the superintendent of Saguaro National Park agreeing to not speak out against the development. List the concessions.

7. Use of vegetation changes in the past as a basis for prediction of vegetation changes in the future is potentially misleading. Why? In other words, describe one of the disadvantages associated with such extrapolation.

8. Describe a realistic scenario in which use of the Clementsian model of succession could contribute to inappropriate decision-making in vegetation management.

9. Determine the habitat type of this site:

   Stand is located at 1,700 m along the base of the Mogollon Rim. The stand is located on a northeastern 40% slope. Soil is shallow and rocky. The overstory is dominated by Quercus arizonica, with Juniperus deppeana and shrubby plants of Quercus arizonica in the subcanopy. Herbaceous vegetation covers about 5% of the ground, and includes a wide variety of graminoids (e.g., Muhlenbergia longiligula, Carex sp., Aristida sp.) and herbaceous dicots (e.g., Artemisia carruthii, A. ludoviciana, Solidago sp.). Pinus ponderosa was selectively harvested from this site 15 years ago; there is no evidence of recent fire, and additional information about site history is unknown.

   Habitat type: _____________________________________________

10. Modern goals of vegetation science and management focus on functional characteristics of ecosystems. List 4 general categories of emergent technologies that furnish new and important insights into vegetation function.

11. Describe how water sources of trees are being determined on the San Pedro River by Dr. Dave and his grad students.

12. Give one example of how hierarchy theory helps define the tools or activities for managing vegetation.

13. The Santa Rita Experimental Range is used for what purpose(s) related to vegetation science and management?

14. Briefly describe 3 quantitative methods for determining some aspect of past vegetation structure or function in an area where this vegetation no longer exists or has changed. Which of these methods is most reliable and why?

15. Describe one example of how you would apply the "safe site" concept to achieve the goals of your management plan for the Santa Rita Experimental Range - Management Plan 1.

16. Contrast the terms reallocation and rehabilitation.

17. On your first day at work for the Forest Service in Bellingham, WA (yes, it's raining) you receive a shipment of conifer seedlings. Interpret the code on the packing slip:

    1-0.5 DF B-40-7-3

18. Assume that you have a certified seed mix consisting of Eragrostis lehmanniana with a viability of 90% and a purity of 80%. What is the percent live seed (PLS)?

19. On our field trip to the Plant Materials Center (PMC) we learned that the PMC uses a modern method for developing source seed that it calls the convergent/divergent method. Briefly explain the main advantages of the convergent/divergent method when compared to the method it replaced.